By KAREN JAEN
With dark, gloomy scenes of a rainy English town, The Woman in Black successfully brings spine tingling fear to its audience.
The film has a gothic horror feel, and touches upon more classic scare tactics, like Poltergeist (1982) . The Woman in Black is a more classic approach to a horror film, which is why it does so well in frightening the viewers. It is essentially one ghost who terrorizes a small town.
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter Series) stars in his first major motion picture film since finishing his role as the famous boy wizard. The film features him as Arthur Kipps, a young lawyer who has struggled to regain stability since the death of his wife. He is assigned to visit and collect all documents at the Marsh Estate owned by the deceased Alice Dreblow. He agrees to do this job so he can keep his employment and support his four-year-old son, Joseph.
He embarks on the weekend journey to the Marsh Estate where he is not welcomed. Kipps quickly learns the small village near the house if full of superstitious villagers who do everything possible to get rid of the lawyer and stop him from visiting the abandoned estate.
As he continues his work in the house, he begins to feel, hear and see ghostly figures. He sees the “woman in black” multiple times throughout his stay at the house. When he returns to the village in the evening, he learns every time she is spotted, a child in the village dies of some strange cause; which is why the villagers try their best to keep Kipps away from the house.
As his first film since escaping the wizarding world, Radcliffe does a fantastic job. He plays his character well. His character develops as the film progresses, becoming more courageous, and consequently he comes to understand the pain of the woman in black. He also becomes more conscious of how important it is to spend time with his son.
Although the movie has a slow start, it picked up in the middle and ends with a bang. The scenery is also very appealing to the audience, the English film sites have a gothic appeal.
This is a great horror film that has a storyline behind it, unlike the usual gory genre . The movie will definitely have the hairs on the back of one’s neck standing and have the viewer experiencing nightmares.
To see the trailer, click here or the graphic above.
The Woman in Black– 4 stars. Not perfect, but worth trying.
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for thematic material and violence/disturbing images.
Running time: 2:00
Opened: 2/3/2012
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